Tyler, the Creator's Ojas Audio System

The rapper, producer, and designer who turned a Brooklyn speaker builder into a fashion-world phenomenon.

The Scene

Tyler, the Creator has always been obsessed with design — from the Golf Wang clothing line to the custom car builds to the meticulous visual direction of every album rollout. So it makes sense that when he discovered Devon Turnbull's Ojas speakers, he didn't just hear them. He saw them. The massive birch plywood horn cabinets, raw and sculptural, fit Tyler's aesthetic perfectly: objects that refuse to be invisible.

Tyler is documented among Turnbull's high-profile clientele in Stereophile's profile, which names him alongside Mark Ronson and Don Was as owners of custom Ojas systems. For Tyler — who produces his own albums and has an obsessive ear for sonic detail — the speakers serve both creative and personal purposes.

What sets Tyler's ownership apart is the cultural bridge it creates. Ojas speakers were already known in audiophile and design circles. Tyler brought them to a generation that discovers gear through Instagram and TikTok, not Stereophile. When he posts a listening session, millions of people under 30 see a horn speaker for the first time — and some of them start asking questions.

The Gear

Tyler's system features custom Ojas horn-loaded speakers — the signature Turnbull design built from Baltic birch plywood with vintage compression drivers. The exact driver complement varies by commission, but Turnbull typically uses JBL, Altec Lansing, or Western Electric components sourced from cinema and professional audio inventory.

The amplification is almost certainly tube-based, consistent with Turnbull's design philosophy of matching high-efficiency horns with low-wattage single-ended triode amplifiers. The entire system is built for a specific room and a specific listener — Turnbull visits the space, takes measurements, and designs accordingly.

For Tyler, the visual component matters as much as the sonic. Ojas speakers look like nothing else — raw wood, exposed drivers, no grilles, no branding. They're furniture and sculpture and sound system simultaneously. In a room full of Golf le Fleur merchandise and vintage sneaker displays, they hold their own as design objects.

Mark Ronson, Tyler the Creator, and Don Was are among those who have commissioned custom Ojas systems.— Stereophile, profiling Devon Turnbull's high-profile clientele

Why It Matters

Tyler's adoption of Ojas represents something significant: the moment high-fidelity audio crossed from audiophile niche into fashion-adjacent culture. Tyler doesn't collect gear because it measures well — he collects it because it's beautiful and it sounds right. That's the same reason people bought Klipschorns in 1960 or McIntosh tube amps in 1975. The motivation hasn't changed. The audience has.

For the secondary market, Tyler's influence has measurably increased interest in horn speakers among younger buyers. Klipsch Heritage models — the Heresy, Cornwall, and Forte — have seen price increases on the used market that correlate with increased visibility in design and fashion media. A clean pair of vintage Klipsch La Scala speakers, which could be found for $1,500 five years ago, now regularly commands $3,000+.

The Ojas pipeline is clear: Tyler shows the dream, Klipsch Heritage provides the entry point, and vintage JBL and Altec Lansing represent the deep end. Every step of that ladder has active eBay and Amazon markets.

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